Quiet, Cool, And Quick!
In my quest to reduce the noise that my Sonar X1 DAW makes I did some upgrading to my system and wanted to share my findings with the forum.
I started with an i7 920 Intel processor on an ASUS P6T Deluxe 2 motherboard, with 12 gigs of Corsair ram. I had a 250GB system drive and a 1TB project and sample drive, both of which had these cool little harddrive fans (2 fans each) that I bought at Fry's. I also had a 9600GT video card with a fan, and a CPU fan as well as a case fan. My power supply was a 680W Corsair with a fan as well. The only other piece of gear in the system was the PCIe card for my Multiface II audio interface (which has no fan).
All told I had 8 fans and 2 harddrives spinning and making a huge racket. I've always had both of my computers (regular internet computer and DAW computer) in the bathroom of my master bedroom. I run extra long cables through a hole in the top of the wall into the bathroom into the area of the drop ceiling, and finally down the the computers. This has helped some in keeping the noise out of my recordings, but you could still hear the whiz of all the fans and drives with my nice mics even with the door closed and padding on the door.
So here's what I did.
Replaced the power supply with a
fanless one:
Replaced the video card with a
fanless one:
Replaced the CPU fan with a
liquid cooler:
Replaced the liquid cooler fan with a
silent one:
Replaced the system drive with an 120GB
SSD drive:
Replaced the X1 projects and audio drive with an another 120GB
SSD drive:
Replaced the samples drive with an 250GB
SSD drive:
I then proceeded to "frankenstein" my computer. I drilled a hole in the top of the case and ran the cables for the power supply through it and mounted the power supply on top of the case about 2 inches high.
I moved the DVD drive out of the DAW case completely and installed it into an empty bay on my internet computer with an extra long cable.
I mounted the CPU cooler and fan on the outside of the case as far away from the CPU as possible. At first I had it in the normal spot inside the case but I found even the small holes in the back of the case designed to let the airflow through was obstructing the airflow somewhat. So by mounting it outside the case I get unimpeded airflow and futher separation from the CPU.
I also removed every possible piece of the case to allow as much airflow as possible because there are no fans in the case at all. I also ziptied the wiring the best I could to allow easier airflow.
And last, because of the placement of the case near the ceiling, the hot air would build up there, so I cut a hole into the drop ceiling to allow the hot air to rise above eveything.
So, what are the results of all this money and reconstruction?
Wow! All I can tell you is that my system is now Quiet, Cool, and Quick!
Here's the pics:
Note the mess of wires on the bottom (internet) computer compared to the top (DAW) computer. Amazing!
The net result is that I can only hear the computer (the CPU Cooler Fan actually) while standing next to it. I can also hear the pump in the cooler gurgling a little as well. But man, it's great to have a almost completely silent computer while recording. I really love it.
As for the heat, it's amazing how cool it stays. The SSD drives are completely cool. The power supply is amazinly cool (for being a power supply). The video card barely gets hot at all. And there is very little heat from the CPU as well. The cooler stays just that, cool. Running Win7 in idle mode the CPU stays at around 40 degrees celcius. With a completed full song running several VSTs and lots of audio tracks, running at everything 64bit at 24bit/96kHz, it runs at right around 50 degrees celcius. I've read where you should keep your computer below 100 degrees celcius, so I'm running VERY COOL.
And now for the speed. I can reboot the computer from inside of Win7 back into Win7, AND load X1 and the above project in under 1 minute! Amazing! It took longer to just open the project before. I have all programs installed on the System drive, all projects and audio files on the Sonar drive, and all samples installed on the Samples drive. Wow, what a difference. I love it. When Sonar goes to load the samples for the above song, all I see is a quick sample box that looks empty, and goes away just as fast. And the audio all loads in in under 3 seconds after that.
All in all I am completely impressed by this upgrade and am loving it all the way. I also waited to upgrade to X1b, as I did a complete reinstall of everything. Installing the software was also very quick due to the SSD drives. A complete fresh install of Win7 installed in 20 minutes.
Sonar X1b is also very stable for me as well.
So, for anyone thinking of doing something similar, I highly recommend it. (now the only thing I hear in my mic while recording is the planes flying overhead, the cars driving by, the neighbors dog barking, the ice cream truck two blocks away, the....)
